Lincoln Michel is one of contemporary literary culture’s great natural resources. He writes fiction and essays (sometimes for VICE), draws comics, co-edits the literary magazine Gigantic (which has lately expanded into book publishing, with a literary sci-fi anthology called Gigantic Worlds due out in 2014), and—perhaps most impressively—has a genuinely funny internet presence that never makes you want to kill him or yourself.

12/14/13

I'm excited to say I have a long surrealist picaresque short story titled "Fragments of a Young Conquistador" in the newest issue of Day One. The subscription price is only .37 cents an issue, so check it out if you like sea monster attacks, hungry alchemists, and so on. (However, you currently buy back issues so if you want to read my story you'll have to subscribe before next week's issue.)

11/22/13

I'm excited to have the first story (recommended by Sam Lipsyte) in the debut of Connu, a really interesting new publishing venture. The Connu app is free in beta now, so download it to your ipad/pod/phone, people.

As part of the Electric Literature’s Recommended Reading Program, Our Education is a quick, thought-provoking read. The prose is neither cumbersome nor too sparse, perfectly matching the conversational tone of a teenager stuck in a teacher-less school. Those expecting a Twilight Zone episode twist ending need not apply. Those looking for a surprising lesson on the perpetual education we call existence should enroll right away.

9/26/13

I'm very excited to have a blurb (from a review in Tin House) on the back of the new edition of Herbert Read's The Green Child. If you want to learn more about this odd and haunting novel, check out Eliot Weinberger's intro published in Harper's.

9/1/13

Electric Literature asked me to pick some of my favorite recent book reviews for their "Critical Hit" column. I decided to pick mostly negative reviews, and spent some time talking about why I think negative reviews are important for the literary conversation. My winners were Emily Cooke, Christian Lorentzen, JW McCormack, and Michelle Dean.

8/15/13

I interviewed Jack Handey, one of my all-time favorite writers in any genre, for VICE. We talked about writing his new novel, funny grammar, and proper cowboy dance moves.

What are the core elements a successful "funny cowboy dance"? You can't force it. When you're doing the dance, if you suddenly feel like flinging your hand out, do it. Don't think about it. Or if you feel like pretending you're chewing tobacco and spitting, as you dance, do that. Don't be too rigid, is what I'm trying to say.

Our Gigantic science fiction Kickstarter officially ended with a pretty amazing 788 backers and over 23k. Thanks so much, everyone! We are working non-stop to make this book worth your support. More to come.

6/21/13

If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I'm sure you have heard plenty about this already, but I am really excited about a science fiction book I'm working on called Gigantic Worlds. The book will have a cover by the amazing Michael DeForge, and fiction by Jonathan Lethem, J. Robert Lennon, Lynne Tillman, and many more! You can read all about here.

4/5/13

I'm currently reading Renata Adler's Speedboat and came across this paragraph that, I thought, made a pretty excellent prose poem all by itself (a common occurrence in Adler's work, to be sure):

Excellent evidence. "The source said that the investigators considered the responses of the dogs 'excellent evidence,'" the Times reported. "In each case the two dogs reacted positively to Mr. Hoffa's scent. One by standing up," the story went on, "and the other by sitting down." Since Will is a lawyer and I used to be an investigative reporter, we conclude that the dogs went to different schools, one to a sitting school, one to a standing school, but anyway to different schools.

4/3/13

I interviewed good friend and great writer Adrian Van Young for The Rumpus. We talked about genre fiction, the sublime, MFA programs, and uncanny fog tendrils:

Because if you’re constantly held in a state of suspense as to whether the fog tendrils are going to grow arms and take someone down to the underworld, or gibbons come riding down out of the sky, then it’s going to foreground that other, human tension of whether Character A is going to rise to the task and save Character B, or whether Character C is going to change his ways by the end. It’s parallel tension in parallel worlds.

4/2/13

I'm very pleased to say that I have a short story in the newest edition of NOON. NOON is one of the only magazines I read back to front each issue, and it is a real honor to make another appearance. The issue includes great pieces from Lydia Davis, James Yeh, Deb Olin Unferth, Anya Yurchyshyn, Clancy Martin, Brandon Hobson, and many more. The issue recently got a nice write-up in the LA Times by David L. Ulin. I like the claim that the pieces form "a tapestry of stories in which friends and lovers, parents and children circle each other like satellites, connecting in only the most elliptical ways."In addition, I will be reading at the NOON launch party at The Center for Fiction on May 8th. Noy Holland, Christine Schutt, James Yeh, Deb Olin Unferth, and Diane Williams (presenting a Brandon Hobson story) will also read.

3/12/13

If you don't order a copy of the new Fairy Tale Review (guest edited by Lily Hoang, work from Ben Loory, Brandi Wells, me, and many others) you might be swallowed by a wolf, transformed into a toadstool, or fall asleep for a thousand years.

3/10/13

Bookforum: There is a line in “The Dungeon Master” where the narrator says, “Everything’s weird if you look long enough.” Could that be a description of your fiction writing process?

Lipsyte: Yeah, perhaps. I think that line echoes a Robert Creeley line, which is “everything is water if you look long enough.” I think I wrote “everything’s weird if you look long enough” and then made the connection, remembering the poem by Creeley, and left it because I liked the resonance there. I’m not sure about the water thing...

It’s gauche, jejune, primitive. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t object to unfamiliar words. Quite the contrary, I enjoy adding obscure words to my vocabulary and sprinkling them in my conversation. The whole time I kept thinking, what the hey is this?? Out of nowhere it goes into this dull drum solo.It reminded me a bit of Ayn Rand’s philosophy, whatever that is called.

Time passes unexpectedly or, perhaps, inexactly at the school. It’s hard to remember what semester we are supposed to be in. Several of the clocks still operate, but they don’t show the same time. The red bells, affixed in every room, erupt several times each day, yet the intervals between the disruptions wax and wane with an unknown algorithm. The windows are obscured by construction paper murals. Consequently, the sun rises and falls in complete ignorance of those of us attending the school. Many of us participated in the decorations in some lost point of childhood. A few of us still have dried glue under our fingernails.